The Merlies

Developer: Darjeeling / Blue Ramen / ARTE France | Publisher: ARTE France / GCORES Publishing | Release Date: 29 September 2026 | Genre: Adventure / Indie / Metroidvania | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

The end of human civilisation is usually rather bad news in videogames. There are generally zombies involved, everything is a shade of brown, and life expectancies tend to be measured in days, not years. The Merlies has a considerably more optimistic interpretation of the apocalypse. Humanity may be gone, but nature is recovering nicely, and a community of tiny birds has discovered that our discarded rubbish makes excellent building material.

Unfortunately, a huge storm has scattered the Merlies across the surrounding wilderness and destroyed much of their home. Players begin with only a small flock and are tasked with exploring the enormous world around them, finding the missing Merlies and rebuilding a village where everyone can live together again. It is an extremely wholesome premise backed by some wonderfully charming character designs, but there is considerably more to the adventure than simply collecting cute birds.

The Merlies describes itself as a “wholesomevania”, which is extremely accurate. It borrows the exploration and ability-based progression of a Metroidvania while completely removing combat. There are no hostile creatures waiting around every corner and no bosses blocking progress. Instead, the world itself provides the obstacles, with thorns, rocks, water, cliffs, and other environmental hazards preventing the flock from reaching new areas until the appropriate Merlie or ability has been discovered.

The result gives a wonderful sense of leading a tiny expedition through an enormous world. Electric cables become climbing routes, mushrooms become launch pads, and discarded human objects tower over the little birds exploring them. Finding something as mundane as an abandoned shoe can feel like discovering an archaeological site simply because of the difference in scale.

Human debris also receives some wonderfully creative names. A broken CD, for example, becomes a “Petrified Ripple”, because the Merlies obviously have absolutely no idea what humans originally used it for. Other objects are repurposed rather than merely collected, with the birds finding ingenious new applications for whatever humanity left behind. An old football can eventually become part of an observatory, while lamps, containers, and other scraps are transformed into useful additions to the growing settlement.

Exploration initially feels fairly straightforward, but finding additional Merlies steadily expands what the flock can accomplish. New abilities include swimming, swinging from grappling points, floating through the air with an umbrella, and smashing through obstacles. Each major addition receives its own small training section, giving players somewhere safe to understand how it works before taking the ability into the wider world.

Several of these abilities can later be improved as well. Upgrades allow the flock to deal with obstacles that the original versions couldn’t overcome, encouraging players to remember previously inaccessible locations and return once better equipped. The umbrella, grappling ability, swimming equipment, and rock-breaking capabilities all eventually become more versatile, opening additional routes through areas that may already have been visited.

This gives exploration a pleasant rhythm. We would frequently encounter something that was obviously important but completely inaccessible, only to return much later with exactly the ability required to reach it. Shortcuts can also be opened throughout the world, gradually making previously lengthy journeys considerably more manageable.

The map itself is very large and frequently quite maze-like, which is both a strength and occasional source of frustration. Wandering off in one direction to investigate something interesting regularly leads to another discovery, and the scale reinforces the feeling that these tiny birds are undertaking a genuine expedition. On the other hand, there were occasions where we had everything necessary to continue but simply weren’t sure where the game expected us to go next.

It is therefore worth returning to the Stump whenever another Merlie has been recruited or an important object recovered. New developments there can point towards the next objective or unlock something required for further exploration, and failing to check back regularly can result in wandering around the enormous map looking for a route that isn’t available yet. The game could occasionally communicate these progression steps a little more clearly.

Fast-travel points thankfully reduce the amount of backtracking required once enough of the map has been explored. Save points and other designated locations also have an important secondary purpose because travelling with a flock carries some risk. Merlies are surprisingly fragile little creatures. There may be no enemies, but landing on damaging objects or otherwise getting a bird into trouble can remove them from the active flock. Players initially have the ability to bring a lost Merlie back once, with this resurrection capability itself being upgradeable back at the Stump. Reaching a save or fast-travel point recharges the ability and restores any Merlies that have been lost along the way, preventing mistakes from permanently ruining an expedition.

Managing the flock becomes increasingly important as its numbers grow. Merlies can be separated from the main group when necessary, although they cannot simply be abandoned halfway across the map. Splitting them is most commonly used for environmental puzzles where a certain number of birds must stand on marked positions simultaneously, forcing players to divide the squad appropriately before bringing everyone back together.

The absence of enemies initially feels surprisingly strange. Years of videogames have conditioned us to assume that wandering into an unfamiliar area means something will eventually attempt to eat us, so exploring such a large world without hostile creatures takes some adjustment. Once we became accustomed to it, however, the decision made considerably more sense.

This isn’t a game about conquering the wilderness. It is about learning how to navigate it. Environmental hazards provide enough danger that traversal still requires some attention, while the complete absence of combat allows exploration to remain relaxed. It also complements the game’s underlying themes of cooperation and rebuilding rather nicely. The Merlies aren’t marching across the world defeating everything they encounter; they’re simply trying to find their friends and make a home from whatever they can salvage.

The village provides the other half of the experience. Materials and unusual objects recovered during expeditions can be used to expand and personalise the settlement, with ordinary human rubbish becoming houses, facilities and decorations. The more we explored, the more the village began to resemble an actual community rather than simply the location where each expedition started.

There are smaller activities around the settlement as well. Helping residents and taking part in simple diversions such as hide-and-seek contributes to the cheerful community atmosphere, while rescued Merlies gradually populate the village. Discovering other Merlie tribes during the adventure also helps make the wider world feel inhabited despite the absence of conventional enemies or human characters.

Some of the best moments come from seeing what the birds decide to do with the things we bring home. Oddities discovered while exploring can inspire artists to create sculptures, which can then be placed around the village. Ornaments provide further decoration, while nests can even have their colours changed for players who want more control over how the settlement looks.

Food provides another optional activity after the main adventure. Merlies have favourite dishes that can be prepared for them, giving completionists another reason to continue exploring and gathering ingredients. None of this is necessary simply to reach the ending, but it substantially increases the amount of content available for anyone who becomes attached to the flock and wants to finish everything.

That optional content is important because the central story itself isn’t especially long. Reaching the ending doesn’t mean there is nothing left to do, though, with collectibles, village improvements, favourite meals, sculptures and other discoveries providing plenty of reasons to return to previously explored areas.

The story is delivered partly through some charming voiced sequences that appear as the journey progresses. These fit the storybook presentation particularly well and help give the adventure a little more narrative structure without constantly interrupting exploration. The Merlies themselves communicate largely through expressive sounds and subtitles, which suits them considerably better than giving every tiny bird a conventional speaking voice would.

Visually, The Merlies is gorgeous. The hand-drawn presentation takes inspiration from graphic novels and children’s picture books, with soft colours and detailed natural environments creating an immediately inviting world. The Merlies themselves are wonderfully expressive despite their simple designs, and little accessories and visual differences give individual members of the flock plenty of personality.

The sense of scale is equally impressive. Human civilisation is mostly represented through the enormous remnants it left behind, allowing familiar objects to become major pieces of scenery. Pipes turn into tunnels, cables become climbing routes, and discarded junk becomes architecture. It reminded us slightly of games such as Tinykin in the way an ordinary human environment becomes something completely different when viewed from the perspective of a much smaller protagonist, although The Merlies has its own distinctive hand-drawn identity.

There is also plenty of environmental variety as the journey progresses. Nature has reclaimed much of what humanity abandoned, creating a mixture of vegetation, water, ruins, and underground areas that keeps such a large interconnected map visually interesting. Opening a new route consequently carries the additional appeal of wondering what sort of environment might be waiting on the other side.

Audio follows the same relaxed philosophy. The soundtrack provides a gentle accompaniment to exploration rather than constantly demanding attention, while the chirps and other noises made by the Merlies give the flock plenty of personality. The voiced story sequences are particularly charming and reinforce the feeling that someone is narrating an illustrated adventure about a group of impossibly determined little birds.

Controls are generally responsive, which is important given how much time is spent platforming and using increasingly elaborate traversal abilities. Moving an entire flock could easily have become cumbersome, but the Merlies generally follow along without requiring constant micromanagement. The ability to split the group when puzzles require it adds some additional control without turning the game into a strategy title.

There are moments where navigating the enormous world can become more cumbersome than it needs to be, particularly when the next objective isn’t obvious or when we remember an inaccessible location but not precisely how to reach it. Fast travel and opened shortcuts improve matters considerably over time, but a little more guidance would have prevented some unnecessary wandering without undermining the focus on exploration.

Replay value depends heavily on how thoroughly players explore during their first visit. The adventure itself is largely built around discovering the world and unlocking the abilities required to access more of it, meaning a second complete playthrough loses much of the surprise. There is considerably more incentive to remain in the existing save after finishing the story and hunt down whatever was missed.

That is probably the better approach anyway. By the time the main journey ends, the village feels like somewhere we have actually helped build, and the flock contains birds we spent hours rescuing from every corner of the map. Finishing the remaining optional activities therefore feels less like clearing icons from a checklist and more like giving our little community the finishing touches it deserves.